Allan Ramsay. [A biography.] - National Library of Scotland

158 FAMOUS SCOTS
rendering of the famous Carpe diem, etc., passage is
all I have space for
— —
; ;
' Let neist day come as it thinks fit,
The present minute's only ours
On pleasure let's employ our wit,
And laugh at fortune's feckless powers.'
Reference has also been made to his apt translation of
the ideas contained in Horace's ist Ode to Maecenas,
by making them express his own feelings towards Lord
Dalhousie. Two of his aptest renderings of the original,
however, were those of Horace's i8th Ode to Quintilius
Varus {Nullam, Vare, sacra vite priiis sevens arborem),
which our poet renders
' O Binny, cou'd thae fields o' thine
Bear, as in Gaul, the juicy vine.
How sweet the bonny grape wad shine
On wa's where now
Your apricock and peaches fine
Their branches bow.
Since human life is but a blink,
Then why should we its short joys sink :
He disna live that canna link
The glass about
Whan warm'd wi' wine, like men we think,
An' grow mair stout.'
The 31st Ode (B. i.) to Apollo is thus felicitously
rendered
—
' Frae great Apollo, poets say,
What would'st thou wish, what wadst thou hae
Whan thou bows at his shrine?
Not Carse o' Cowrie's fertile field,
N'or a' the flocks the Grampians yield
That are baith sleek and fine ;